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Punishing a Bad Report Card?

By Lisa Belkin November 10, 2010 11:11 amNovember 10, 2010 11:11 am

Illustration by Barry Falls

Report card time. That has always been a fairly good day at Alyssa’s house in Houston. This time around, though, things aren’t going so well, and Alyssa’s mother is looking for some advice. Here’s the comment she left Tuesday on an unrelated post:

“My daughter is 12 and in seventh grade. I just found out from her school that they distributed report cards last week and she did not give hers to me. She hid it in a drawer in her room because she didn’t want to be grounded for her low grade of 76 in science. She’s a really good student and kid for the most part. She has starting the teenager back-talk stuff, but she’s over all a really good kid. I have no idea what I should do about her hiding her report card. Should I punish her? Ground her for hiding it? We have an 85 percent rule in the house: her grades need to be 85 percent or above or she is grounded to the house until the next progress report.
Advice on what I should do?
Alyssa’s Mom”

Poll of the readership: how do you handle bad report cards at your house? What do you consider “bad”? Does punishment work? Is the problem here really the report card? Or the hiding? What should Alyssa’s mother do?

About

We're all living the family dynamic, as parents, as children, as siblings, uncles and aunts. At Motherlode, lead writer and editor KJ Dell’Antonia invites contributors and commenters to explore how our families affect our lives, and how the news affects our families—and all families. Join us to talk about education, child care, mealtime, sports, technology, the work-family balance and much more